Superstructure for railways



April 28, 1931. SCHElBE SUPERSTRUCTURE FOR RAILWAYS Filed July 9, 1929 2Sheets-Sheet 1 II/Il/IIIIIIIIlI/I/IIII/ April 28, 1931. R. SCHEIBE1,803,073

SUPERSTRUCTURE FOR RAILWAYS Filed July 9. 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Mm iPatented Apr. 28;, 1931 a 41 RICHARD sci-mien. or KtoTzscHE,NEARDRESDEN. GERMANY are I 1. snrnasraucrnnn For. R-AILWVAYS Applicationfiled Iiu e, 1929, serial no. sraaee, and seamen 1, 1929.

My'inventi'on relates to railway roadbeds and has for its principalobject to provide a new and improvedconstruction for electricallyinsulating th-erail from the sleeper thus making it apt to serve as anelectrical conductorfor signalling and other purposes.

1 In carrying out my invention I am aware that the principal difficultyto be overcome is that no insulation will last when the slightest "'1relative movement Occurs between the railand the sleeper or itsfastening-means. For every such movement would cause friction and destroyany insulating matter within a. short time whatever material it mayconsist of.

I therefore use'a superstructure for railways the parts of :which do notmove under the influence of the external forces applied to them butremain substantially rigidin their 7 relativepositionsn Obviouslyno'friction can occur between the parts of such a structure andtherefore no undue stressv would be exerted upon'insulating matterbroughtbetween the rail and its adjacent parts, because they are subjectto pressurealon'e and any grinding jefiectwould need pressure incoaction with movement.

Such a superstructure I have disclosed in my U. S. Patent 1,515,367. Bythe combination-0f an elastically yielding sleeper with a v '30thoroughly rigid connection of the rail with the said sleeperthe shocksare wholly 'ab-: sorbed by the yielding sleeper which alters momentarilyits'shape and pass throughthe means for attaching the rail as if thesewere 35. one solid body. I can therefore interpose between the rail andits adj acent parts insulating matter.

In the drawings forming'a'part of this specification and head of thesleeper, I

Fig.2 is a similar view showing anothe embodiment of my invention.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the sleeper.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing the manner in which the shocks andforces received by the rail are transmitted through the sleepers anddistributed thereby over a continuous supporting area.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the sleeper.

Fig. 1 is a cross section through the rail Referring to Fig. '1 thenumeral 1 designates the rail, 2 the insulating matter and 3' the planeupper middle part of the sleeper upon which the base of the rail rests.A bolt or screw 4- with an elongated head presses by means of'a nut theclamp 5 with its one end against the base of therail and with its otherend against the sleeper. Thebolt is of such thickness and is'situated sonear the base of the rail that an extraordinary tension can be exertedby the same upon the clamp, the measurements of which are chosen inaccordance. If for instance a tension of15000 kg. lies within theelastical capacity of the bolt and of the clamp likewise these partswill not give way in the slightest to the occurring shocks but will passthem undiminished to the sleeper. The-insulating material, therefore,need only withstand a certain pressure V as it will not be subject toany grinding action. I Whilst in Fig. 1 the layer of insulating masterial follows the upper curve of the edge of the rail base it is shownin Fig. 2 only covering 7 the flat upper surface'of the base besides ofcourse the bottom layer; yThe clamp equally only touches the said uppersurface of the base. The pressure exerted by the bolt is such as toprevent aloneany lateral displacement a of the rail the lateral shocksamounting at the most to approximately 5000 kg. It is of ad vantagethatwith this embodiment of my invention the insulating material be usedonly in flat layers without any bends which could cause fracturesor'cracks, thereby deteriorating the insulating'capac-ity.

As shown in Fig. 3 of the drawing; a sleeper embodying my inventioncomprises the plane upper middleor head parts3, on which the foot orbase of the rail 2 rests.

The plane head part3 of the sleeper merges into the sidewalls 13 whichare of substantially cylindrical shape and extend a. distanceapproximately equal to or slightly less than 65 of a 'circlelstartingfrom thepoint where the plane upper wall terminates. At-their' lowerextremities the cylindrical side walls 13 merge into plane sections-14substantially therefrom preferably at an inclination of 1 4.

By referring to Fig. 4, it will be seen that this construction willensure that the shocks and stresses caused by the traffic'will betransferred to the ballast so as to be dispersed over the greatestpossible surface and what is more essential that no unstressed portionsor intervals will be left in the earth works between adjacent sleepers.According to the well known principle of engineering, it will be obviousthat the forces which will be transmitted by a sleeper having theelastic properties as herein disclosed, will be normal to the curvat'ivethereof at any particular point. It will therefore be seen thattheoretically the downward forces transmitted to the earth works by asleeper constructed as shown in Figs. 3 and 4: would begin just .belowthe dot and dash line A B (Fig. 3) and as indicated by the lines G inFig. I. Prac tically, however, the theoretical reactions transmitted bythe sleeper between the lines C and D, Fig. 4:, may be disregarded asthey would have but little or no deteriorating effect upon theearthworks because of the slight degree of the deformations of thesleeper between these lines. Considering therefore those portions of thesleeper whose deform-a tions are the greater and by which prac' ticallythe full strength of the forces to which the sleeper is subjected aretransmitted to the earth works, it will be obvious that these forces aretransmitted by those portions of the sleeper situated between the lines,D and E in Fig. 4. With the sleepers spaced as indicateddiagrammatically in this figure it will be seen that the lines Dintersect at the point F on the line G H so that therefore a con tinuoussupporting area for the rails is formed along this line G H which itwill be noted is located quite close to the rails and that there are nounstressed portions along this area between the sleepers.

It will be noted that the gap 15 between the edges of the inclinedportions 14 is very small so as to leave no unstressed portion upon theearth works and also to prevent the ballast from forcing its wayupwardly into the interior of the sleeper, and thus cause the interiorof the sleeper to be filled up to such an extent that the under face ofthe top plane portion .3 would rest directly upon the ballast, and thusnot only prevent the yielding effect of the sleeper, but by produc ing apressure against the interior of the sleeper cause the gap 15 to beincreased.

.The sleeper is preferably provided as shown in Fig. 5 upon its upperportion 10 with one ormore elongated slots 16 adjacent the point wherethe rails are to rest and if desired-this portion of the sleeper may bemade of somewhat thicker construction than the other portions thereof,in order to compensate for the weakening of the structure due to thepresence of the slots 16. These slots receive the heads of bolts 4.

As a result of the elastic support given by the underlying portions 13and 14 to the head portion 3 of the sleeper, an absolutely rigidconnection may be made by the fastening means described between the headportion 3 and the rail, preventing any independent movements between thetwo, whereby the insulating material will always be protected againstshift-ing motion and disintegration.

After the sleepers have been placed in position and the rails attachedthereto, ballast or soil is inserted into the interiors of the sleeperfrom the ends thereof, it being understood thata space is left betweenthe top portion 3 of the sleeper and the filling material to prevent a.direct reaction between this top portion and the filling which asheretofore set forth would entirely destroy the elastic effect of thesleeper. When the interiors of the sleepers are filled as described, itwill be obvious that a considerable weight is represented by eachsleeper which is of great value in securing a substantial construction.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a support for railway rails, an elastically yielding sleepercomprising a rigid top portion and a resilient base portion, clamps forholding the rail on the sleeper, layers of electrically insulatingmaterial between the rail and those parts which would otherwise touchits surface, means for causing the clamps to exert such pressure on therail and the interposed insulating material as to withstand by thatpressurealone lateral shocks applied by the rolling stock andtransmitting the said shock undiminished in strength to the sleeper.

2. In a support for railway rails, a yielding sleeper comprising a rigidtop portion and a resilient base portion, means engaging the sleeperadapted to exert pressure for holding the rail on the sleeper,electrically insulating material between the rail and those parts whichwould otherwise touch its surface, and means for exerting pressure onthe aforesaid interengaging parts whereby lateral shock on the rail istransmitted undiminished in strength through the insulation to thesleeper.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification on the8th day of June, 1929.

RICHARD SCHEIBE.

